Historical Background of Philemon
Author
Born as Saul in Tarsus (on the southern coast of modern-day Turkey). The exact date of his birth is unknown.
TARSUS (Ταρσός, Tarsos). A city in Cilicia, a region of Asia Minor, which roughly corresponds to modern-day Turkey. Associated with the Apostle Paul.
Location
Cilicia comprised a fertile plain that spread from the Taurus Mountains in the north to the Mediterranean Sea in the south. It had a rugged coastland that encompassed the Taurus Mountains and extended to the sea (Jones, The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces, 191).
Tarsus, the main city on the plain, was built 10 miles (16km) inland alongside the Cydnus River (also known as the Tarsus River or Berdan River), which was navigable and emptied into the Mediterranean. Tarsus also connected with the trade route to Syria via a pass through the Taurus Mountains called the Cilician Gates. Its harbor, which was protected from pirates and storms, guaranteed the city an important role in the trade with Egypt and Syria (Ramsay, The Cities of St. Paul, 93–116; Finegan, The Archeology of the New Testament, 52–55).
Died sometime between AD 62–64; Paul may have been martyred in Rome.
Schooled as a Pharisee under the Jerusalem religious leader Gamaliel.
Worked as an artisan who made tents.
Became a traveling missionary and preacher for the early church; renamed Paul.
Was imprisoned multiple times by the Roman authorities for his religious agitation.
• Wrote several theological letters (some of which are included in the New Testament).
Audience
Philemon, the primary recipient of the letter, is described as Paul’s “beloved fellow worker” (verse 1). Apphia and Archippus are named as corecipients of the letter, along with the believers who met at Philemon’s house. However, “the pattern of ancient letters was to list the primary addressee first” (Moo, Colossians and Philemon, 361). This is supported by the fact that from verses 4–22, all of the pronouns and verbs are in the second-person singular as opposed to plural, showing that Paul “focuses consistently on a single individual” (Moo, Colossians and Philemon, 362). Although the letter is personal in nature, the inclusion of other addressees suggests that the content had ramifications for people beyond Philemon.
Philemon’s name appears nowhere else in the New Testament. Dunn notes several characteristics about him based on details in the letter (Dunn, Colossians and Philemon, 300–01):
1. He was a person of means with a house (2) and a guest room (22).
2. He appears to have been converted through Paul (19).
3. He ministered alongside Paul at some point (1, 17).
4. He possibly was the leader of the church at his house, as he had a hand in encouraging other believers (5, 7).
One of four so-called Prison Letters attributed to the Apostle Paul (the others are Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians). Philemon is Paul’s shortest letter (only 335 words in Greek) and the only one that he sends to an individual rather than to an entire church. The letter addresses Philemon concerning his runaway slave, Onesimus, who apparently became a Christian through Paul’s ministry (Phlm 10). Philemon appears to have hosted the church at Colossae, since that is where Paul sends Onesimus (Phlm 2; Col 4:8–9).
There is debate over where Paul was imprisoned when he wrote Philemon and the other Prison Letters. He most likely was in Rome, Ephesus, or Caesarea.
Philemon probably was written and delivered at the same time as Colossians and Ephesians. Moo cites four reasons for tying these letters together (Moo, Colossians and Philemon, 42):
1. All three are written to believers in the same geographical region.
2. Colossians and Ephesians were to be delivered by Tychicus (Col 4:7–8; Eph 6:21–22).
3. The names that appear in the final greetings of Colossians and Philemon are a near match (Col 4:10–15; Phlm 23–24).
4. Ephesians and Colossians overlap in vocabulary and theology.
Although the exact nature of the situation is uncertain, it is clear that a slave named Onesimus had run away from Philemon. The language of verse 18 implies Onesimus had committed some offense against his master and perhaps others. The Greek text of this verse includes a first-class conditional statement (εἰ, ei; plus the indicative), which assumes fact in someone’s mind. An appropriate translation would be “since he has wronged you”; there is nothing hypothetical about Paul’s statement.
After fleeing, Onesimus evidently met Paul and became a follower of Jesus (10–18). This reconstruction is based largely on verse 10, where Paul appeals on behalf of his “child” Onesimus. “My child” (τοῦ ἐμοῦ τέκνου, tou emou teknou) is the phrase Paul uses for one of his spiritual children. The same verse explains that Paul “gave birth” (ὃν ἐγέννησα, hon egennēsa) to Onesimus “while in chains” (ἐν τοῖς δεσμοῖς, en tois desmois). Paul has now sent the slave back to his master, and it is possible that Onesimus himself delivered Paul’s letter to Philemon (12).
Paul’s overall message in the letter is that, as a result of Onesimus’ conversion, Philemon and Onesimus are brothers in Christ. This new reality “radically shifted the place of Onesimus in Philemon’s household” (Thielman, Theology of the New Testament, 391), calling for an ethic of reconciliation that superseded the original offense. Paul urges Philemon to receive Onesimus “no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother” (16).
The letter serves as a reminder—not only to Philemon and Onesimus, but to the Church, as well—to love one another in true fellowship. This countercultural approach to love and fellowship spills over into all spheres of life, as “the believer’s existence ‘in the Lord’ affects all his or her relationships” (Moo, Colossians and Philemon, 372).